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Out With The New, In With The Old


Helene

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The amazon.com search box was always to the right of the logo. It is a widget that has a text box to write in the name of the item being searched. When we upgraded to this version, we also added a banner ad at the bottom of every page, long and narrow without a text box. Neither is showing for me.

I just went to Ballet Talk for Dancers to see if I could see the amazon.com box there, and I can't. (Screenshot attached.) It should show on one side of the Zazzle ad, but I can't remember on which side.

This is on Firefox. On Safari, I can see the search box, which must be there in place of the banner ad as a result of my noodling before.

I'm wondering if it's my "ad-blocking" add-in in Firefox.

post-3390-086061700 1293171989_thumb.jpg

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Yes, before and immediately after the upgrade, the small Amazon search box was just to the right of the Ballet Talk/Ballet Alert logo; at some point, a very tall thin Amazon banner took its place, greatly expanding the blue field and pushing the logo to the bottom of the page. Now the vertical banner is gone, and I see just the Ballet Alert logo in its blue field (without any Amazon search box next to it).

I don't see a long narrow banner ad with a text box at the bottom of the pages; what I see is the small search box (with space for text) which used to be at the top of the page.

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I'm pretty sure I changed the bottom widget from the banner to the search box tonight.

It was my ad-blocking software that was blocking any amazon.com widget/banner. Now I can see the search box. However, the header is now twice the height of the logo, argh.

I'll try again to get the search box at the top and the banner at the bottom, now that I can see it appear.

Many thanks for your feedback!

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It's looking good, Helene, even with the header at its present size, and I haven't noticed any functional glitches. This has been a remarkably smooth transition - kudos!

Edited to add: Looks like you've got the header adjusted now, and I see the small Amazon search box to the right of the logo.

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There are a lot of pages that have the Ballet Talk name. I haven't gotten around to all that I need to change, but I'll start with this one!

Golly, Helene, you're having to do the job without some kind of global "search and replace" function? That's a shame, and it makes your project the more impressive for what you're putting into it.

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We don't want to do a global change on all posts and disturb history that much. We're trying to change just the forum and sub-forum names, registration forms, the rules, policies, instructions, and eventually the emails. That's not a lot, but I'm sure I'll miss a few and need to be reminded.

But thank you for thinking of us :)

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You're welcome!

How's the Amazon search-box issue going? I hate to bear bad news, but I had it a few minutes ago in Safari 5.0.3 (under Mac OS X 10.5.8) but on switching to Firefox 3.6.13, I had it only on the first page I looked at (at the top of the page, alongside - on the right - the new maroon Ballet Alert! banner, as in Safari and where it seems to belong) but never anywhere on subsequent pages. Or maybe this is only bad on my system, which I think is pretty conventional as to choice of software, though.

Which reminds me: Do we get our commission or whatever it is every time we go to Amazon from here or only when we follow through with a purchase? Thinking it's the former, I usually swing through here on the way there for any purpose. Like trying to listen to samples of recordings, for instance, when I might not buy anything.

One thing I like about the new software is the display of company names where they are massed together on the front page - it's more legible to me than before. On the other hand, the thread titles on the forum-menu pages look redundant, like Thread Title --> Thread Title, which is no operational problem, but seems odd, unless it serves a purpose I haven't grasped.

As to the "View New Content" versus "Today's active content" issue, I haven't seen any consistency in what I get from the former link, so I've made use of that discussion by switching to the latter, at least for now; I get more than I'm looking for, but better too much than too little.

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You're welcome!

How's the Amazon search-box issue going? I hate to bear bad news, but I had it a few minutes ago in Safari 5.0.3 (under Mac OS X 10.5.8) but on switching to Firefox 3.6.13, I had it only on the first page I looked at (at the top of the page, alongside - on the right - the new maroon Ballet Alert! banner, as in Safari and where it seems to belong) but never anywhere on subsequent pages. Or maybe this is only bad on my system, which I think is pretty conventional as to choice of software, though.

I'm using Firefox 3.6.13 on a Mac, and I can see the search box on all pages, plus the footer "banner" ad at the bottom of each page. When I had AdBlocker on, I couldn't see it at all. I couldn't figure out a way to tweak the settings to show me our amazon boxes as an exception, but I'll keep trying.

What I haven't been able to find is a way to align the box properly with the logo.

Which reminds me: Do we get our commission or whatever it is every time we go to Amazon from here or only when we follow through with a purchase? Thinking it's the former, I usually swing through here on the way there for any purpose. Like trying to listen to samples of recordings, for instance, when I might not buy anything.

We get commission on sales net of returns. However, there's no penalty or harm using the search box for searches.

One thing I like about the new software is the display of company names where they are massed together on the front page - it's more legible to me than before. On the other hand, the thread titles on the forum-menu pages look redundant, like Thread Title --> Thread Title, which is no operational problem, but seems odd, unless it serves a purpose I haven't grasped.

The second iteration displays to show unread content: if the second listing is bold, like in your example, it means unread; if it's in regular type, it means you've read all of the posts.

The caveat is that to maximize server efficiency, this isn't realtime: there is a delay until the core database is updated.

As to the "View New Content" versus "Today's active content" issue, I haven't seen any consistency in what I get from the former link, so I've made use of that discussion by switching to the latter, at least for now; I get more than I'm looking for, but better too much than too little.

I haven't been able to find anything in the "Help" forums that explains the difference. I know that the new PM notifications -- there are a handful of types -- don't all re-set all counters when you look at a message, which is annoying.

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Thanks for mentioning AdBlocker! Disabling it for this site seems to have fixed me up. And for the thread-title explanation, too.

What I haven't been able to find is a way to align the box properly with the logo.

Not sure exactly what you mean, but it looks fine here (now that I see it). Computers! *sigh*

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